My Photography

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Clicks from Konkan

To begin with I am going to post some of my latest clicks, if I get good at blogging like others you might find me writing some stuff apart from photography, but till then all I can do is post some pics I clicked and praise them and myself lol

These ones are from my trip to good old Konkan with my friends, the pictures are taken at various locations like Harihareshwar, Shriwardhan and Diveagar.

So here we go ......

This one was clicked on the shore of Shriwardhan, Konkan Maharashtra India. The moment I reached the beach with my camera I realized that I am going to click some real good sunset pictures today, and here they are

The entire scene looks like 100 times better than in reality, thanks to the perfect light conditions and ofcourse my favorite little D40

The next one a somewhat similar to the one I posted above but the lighting condition and my timing was not so great, so just see and feel the difference .

This might appear to be more photogenic other than the one that I posted first, but personally I like the first one over the second one. If I remember well this was the moment when the tiny fishing trawlers pulled their anchors and left into the sea for fishing.

The next click is a very simple one with no special theme or subject as such but I like it cause it looks good :) or may be me being a simple person is for simple clicks and yes this one was clicked at Harihareshwar MTDC

The next one you are about to see is clicked using my my sigma 70-300 mm, it turned out to be good without much of expectations, and was clicked on a cloudy night with no pod, thats what makes this moon rise special. this one was captured at around 7 pm, Shriwardhan beach.

This one is the last for the day, and was clicked on the way to Harihareshwar via Tamhini ghat and was clicked on the back waters of the Tata dam. This one of my best reflection that I have ever captured. Not as good as the ones you get to see now a days but considering the location camera and a newbie photographer like me it is considerably good.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Ranthambore Wildlife (Part 1)

Well I am not sure if this is a Kingfisher or not but as per our tour guide at Ranthambore its a Indian Kingfisher. It has comparatively shorter beak and does not have typical white color on its throat. It still dives in ponds for fishes. These birds are also found in some parts of Hariyana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.

Well this creature here does not need any details or explanation. This is regular wild ant which simply does not stop, it was very difficult capture this comparatively tiny creature in grassy lands, after 15 - 20 attempts I managed to capture it well even if it was running away. It appears to be still in the picture but it is not :)

This is a Scoop Owl usually founds in Rajasthan, Gujarat & Maharashtra. He was capture while he is fast asleep, funny thing about this owl is it has a yellow beak and we were told by our guide that it can eat upto 5 rats in a night. Well that's a superb apatite for a Owl.

This is a Barasingha, typically found in parts of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. This species were almost extinct during the late 80's. A special initiative was taken by the Indian wildlife division to protect these species, special breeding projects were carried out and released in the reserves. The species are considered to be stable and out of danger now. Here's a glimpse of one I managed to capture in my camera.

Nilgai found in central India can stand 4-5 feet at shoulders, and mature males can weight around 240 Kgs. Mostly they are found in small groups of 5 - 40 at a time, but I never came across any herd all the Nilgai's that I came across here in the park were solitary. Here's a snap I cliches, its not really clear neither is the Nilgai posing for the picture but still it is good considering poor lighting conditions and shy nature of the creature.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Ranthambore National Park

Hello Everyone,

I had recently been to Ranthambore National park and it was a very good experience. The best part is I got some photographs which I have decided to share :)

Well Ranthambore National Park is one of the biggest and most renowned national park in Northern India. The park is located in the Sawai Madhopur district of southeastern Rajasthan, which is about 130 km from Jaipur. Being considered as one of the famous and former hunting grounds of the Maharajas of Jaipur.

This is Sawai Madhaopur railway station, Ranthambore National Park is around 6 km from station

Sleeping Geese in Sawai Madhaopur on a chill & windy morning :)

There are lot of experiences & photographs that I want to share with you about the National Park and animals that I happen to see. Well its difficult to do all in one go so wait till I add another post. Thank you for your patience

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

It’s been long since my last post. I know I have been lazy and in addition to that did not have much to write about neither did have any new pictures to post. I have a couple of photographs that I am going to post today. They are not great but for some reason they appealed to me a lot. So here I go

The above picture was clicked at random with not intentional aiming or focusing. I was just looking for a colorful close subject to check the setting, so I clicked the picture of my clothes which were freshly pressed and delivered and surprisingly this shot appealed me a lot. It was clicked in average light & vivid color compensation. The photo looks colorful and has a 3D effect because of the aperture focused only on the edges of the clothes.

Now I am going to post something really colorful. This was shot intentionally after looking at the colors of the subject :-). Well this one is shot in medium light and it is an outdoor picture with no flash. I have copped the original picture to keep the focus on the subject. I was not able to get real good focused shot because of lighting conditions and people moving around. Even with average lighting conditions the shot has come up very well because 1. I kept the camera on a bench opposite to the subject for a stable shot. 2. Camera was on shutter priority mode i.e. I manually selected the shutter speed. 3. Shutter operated at 1/4 sec which gave good exposure and captured the subject image well even in average lighting conditions

Well this all that I have for today. Hopefully I will get an opportunity to click some good pictures in the near future so that I can post and share my clicks and my experience in short.

I have added some random pics as well.

This is another simple click that which went good

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Trek to Purandar

Well the images you are about to see are not clicked on any SLR or any digital camera. All the images are clicked on 2 MP VGA cameras so please do not expect much from these images. (LOL)

Well these pictures are clicked on fort Purandar which is about 50 km from Pune city. This fort stands 4,472 ft. above the sea (1,387 m) in the Western Ghats, 50 km southeast of Pune. It actually consists of two forts - Purandar and Vajragad (or Rudramal). The latter is the smaller of the two and is on the eastern side of the main fort.

The fort has two distinct levels. The lower part is called the machi. North of the machi is a flat area where the cantonment and hospital was housed. There are many temples dedicated to Purandeshwar (the fort's patron god, from which it also takes its name) and Sawai Madhavrao Peshwa here. There is a statue of Murarbaji Deshpande, the fort-keeper (killedar) who gave his life to protect the fort from the Mughals. The northern part of the machi has a low fall with several bastions and an imposing gate with two towers.

From the lower level a staircase leads to the upper level or Ballekilla. The first structure of the Ballekilla that comes into view is the Dilli Darwaza. This area also houses an ancient Kedareshwar temple. The higher level called Ballekilla is surrounded by steep drop on three sides.

Apart from this I was not able to collect any other significant information about this fort. I can tell you one thing for sure tough, this fort is under military as of for now. The military will not allow you to enter the fort after 6 pm in the evening till 6 am in the morning.

We came across many abandoned barracks, deserted old churches, muddy bunkers and other typical army stuff. The entire level 1 of the fort looks like a haunted village which you will very well realize after seeing the pics.

This fort is more of a hike than a trek. It will take approx take 2 hours for any fit person to climb to the top of the fort from base of the fort Narayan Peth. As usual there are few temples on the fort and on the top we have very nice Mahadev temple. Approx the height of the topmost point is 1,000 M from the base (Narayan Peth) I would say.

The best season to visit this place is probably winter or rainy season as summer will give you a sun stroke for sure. Vegetation is limited on the fort. Only drinking water we came across on the fort is at the entrance gate of the fort from a well. You will come across different species of birds and insects on the top. Near the Mahadev temple you better be careful with your bags. We came across one real scary, stubborn and bold monkey. On our way back to the base he followed us all the way down in hope of food, finally some stray dog helped us get rid of him. Trust me these monkeys are real bold and smart. If you throw a stone at him he will disappear for a while. Off a sudden he will appear and throw a stone on us. He will stare at your back pack like a hungry lion staring at its pray, just kidding.

Over all its fun. :)

Tip please do not click on the images to enlarge them, they will not look good if enlarged. This tip is limited to this post :-P.

This picture was taken at 6:30 am in the morning after heavy rain. I don't know what this pond is called but the water is clean. You can actually swim in it. Looks spooky with the fog around but makes you feel refreshing on a sunny afternoon, experienced it.

This is just one bf the spooky barrack from old British times. They are abandoned now. Fo some reason I cannot enlarge this picture.

Same barrack from another angle with less fog more colors lol. Please don't go on the picture quality, these ones are shot on 2 MP VGA :).

Ya thats me .

It looks like a weired structure at the beginning right. Trying to guess what this is? its an abandoned bunker . Sorry did not click from the other side.

The opposite foggy peak is the top of the fort.

View from the top.

Thats the Mahadev temple on the top.

This is the entrance of the fort. Its almost 1km hike from the base village.

I am not taking credit for this snap. I have not clicked it , got it from another open forum. Its the legendary Murarbaji Deshpande.

This is one of the old churches.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Post after a long time

It’s been a little busy week, haven’t had a chance to really post anything. Here a new addition I personally like it a lot :)

Monday, August 24, 2009

My fishes

Well this is a traditional gold fish. Been with me for almost year and half now.

This is a traditional redcap. He is very active and always hungry :).

This is my sweet little aquarium. As of for now I have a pair of traditional gold fishes another pair of Koi, small red cap's. Sucker as usual in charge of the maintenance guess he is kinda invisible in in this snap. Almost forgot about another pair of shubankin. So in total i have 10 fishes :)

Sunday, August 23, 2009

गणपती बाप्पा..... मोरया

गणपती बाप्पा..... मोरया

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Max colors

I am not sure if something went wrong or right but then if you see few of the snaps they are so colorful for some reason that they appear to be enhanced or something. These ones are not enhanced or anything but yes did add some light to few of them, apart from that no other modifications are done. Most were clicked at 1/320s f9.0 -1.00EV ISO 200 42.00mm with little or no changes.

1/400s f10.0 -1.00EV ISO 200 55.00mm

1/320s f9.0 -1.00EV ISO 200 42.00mm

1/320s f9.0 -0.75EV ISO 200 15.00mm

1/500s f11.0 -1.00EV ISO 200 19.00mm

What is DSLR

I know most of you are familiar with the digital cameras these days. But there is something beyond the normal film and digital cameras. I personally for some reason prefer DSLR's . there is nothing wrong with the traditional film or digital cameras, they give great results no doubt and at the end it all depends how you take the snap.

So finally its not about how good camera you have but its about timing, angle and your aiming. If these things go well you can take great photographs. To make this little easy DSLR cameras are a little better. So what is DLSR - (Digital Single lens reflex). Here are few things that you should know about DSLR cameras.

Digital SLR cameras are defined by their reflex viewfinder. DSLRs are the most efficient when using such a viewfinder. Some DSLR cameras also feature live-view which uses the rear LCD to show an approximation of the scene. At this time, live-view either means slow auto focus or a cropped preview, plus it is also not WYSIWYG nor does it allow access to all functions.
A DSLR viewfinder sees through the lens. It is easy to judge focus - but not exposure through it. You can't see how bright or dark a picture will come out before taking it.
Optical zoom depends on the attached lens. It makes no sense to specify optical zoom when describing a digital SLR camera. Lenses which do not zoom are called prime lenses.
A DSLR's focal-length multiplier is determined by the size of its image sensor. The angle-of-view of a lens mounted on a particular sensor is calculated using the focal-length-multiplier.
The connector between an SLR camera and a lens is called a mount. Only SLR cameras and lenses with the same mount-type can be attached to each other.
SLR lenses are zoomed and manually focused by hand. This is faster, more precise and much more responsive than typical electronic zooms.
All DSLR cameras have full manual controls, manual focusing, custom white balance, high-ISO sensitivities, a hot-shoe for an external flash and can produce RAW images.
Available apertures are limited by the attached lens. Available shutter speeds are determined by the camera.
In fall 2008, Nikon with deliver the world's first DSLR with movie-mode. Until now, no DSLR had movie-recording capability. Soon after, Canon announced the first full-frame DSLR with movie mode.
Battery life on a DSLR is significantly longer than most fixed-lens digital cameras unless live-view is used.

Some useful groups

Thursday, August 20, 2009

World Photography Day, 19 August 2009 Celebration

Most of us know that the first announcement of a photograph was made on August 19th, 1839. This is well documented in photography history books, encyclopedias, as well as in various articles by authors of standing. To confirm authenticity of August 19th as the birth of photography I quote here a few lines from some popular publications and also some well known photographers from various countries: India International Photographic Council commenced celebrating August 19th as World Photography Day in 1991 and has encouraged other societies in other countries to do the same. Unfortunately, due to lack of publicity, the photographic community around the globe is unaware of this. I sincerely believe and hope that the joint efforts can play an important role in increasing awareness of World Photography Day. Photography is one of the most important inventions of the 19th century. Had this unique medium not been invented, our world would be much darker than it is today. Let us not forget this fact and let World Photography Day see the light!

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Key features of Nikon D40

6 megapixel DX format CCD (1.5x FOV crop, as D50)
Nikon Image processing engine (as D80 / D200)
3D Color Matrix Metering II, 420 pixel sensor (as D80 / D50)
New Multi-CAM530 three area AF sensor
ISO sensitivity range 200 - 1600 plus HI 1 (3200 equiv.)
Custom Auto ISO (selectable maximum ISO, minimum shutter speed)
2.5 fps continuous shooting (as D50), unlimited in JPEG
No status LCD, new LCD monitor based status / settings screens
Help suggestions on LCD monitor (eg. scene too dark, try using flash)
Large 2.5" 230,000 pixel LCD monitor
Bigger viewfinder view (x0.8 magnification, 95% coverage)
Short shutter lag and viewfinder blackout
Support for SDHC (SD cards over 2 GB in capacity)
In-camera retouching
D-Lighting (shadow / highlight enhancement)
Red-eye reduction
Trimming
Monochrome
Filter effects
Small picture
Image overlay
USB 2.0 with PTP and Mass Storage device support
Very compact, light body (smaller, lighter than D50)
Improved menu user interface (as D80 / D200)
New EN-EL9 Lithium-Ion battery (7.2V, 1000 mAh)
New 'Version II' AF-S DX 18-55 mm kit lens

Digital SLR defination

A digital single-lens reflex camera (digital SLR or DSLR) is a digital camera that uses a mechanical mirror system and pentaprism to direct light from the lens to an optical viewfinder on the back of the camera.
The basic operation of a DSLR is as follows: for viewing purposes, the mirror reflects the light coming through the attached lens upwards at a 90 degree angle. It is then reflected twice by the pentaprism, rectifying it for the photographer's eye. During exposure, the mirror assembly swings upward, the aperture narrows (if stopped down, or set smaller than wide open), and a shutter opens, allowing the lens to project light onto the image sensor. A second shutter then covers the sensor, ending the exposure, and the mirror lowers while the shutter resets. The period that the mirror is flipped up is referred to as "viewfinder blackout". A fast-acting mirror and shutter is preferred so as to not delay an action photo.
All of this happens automatically over a period of milliseconds, with cameras designed to do this 3~10 times a second.
DSLRs are often preferred by professional still photographers because they allow an accurate preview of framing close to the moment of exposure, and because DSLRs allow the user to choose from a variety of interchangeable lenses. Most DSLRs also have a function that allows accurate preview of depth of field.
Many professionals also prefer DSLRs for their larger sensors compared to most compact digitals. DSLRs have sensors which are generally closer in size to the traditional film formats that many current professionals started out using. These large sensors allow for similar depths of field and picture angle to film formats.
The term DSLR generally refers to cameras that resemble 35 mm format cameras, although some medium format cameras are technically DSLRs.

Close up photography tips

If your camera has a limited close focusing you could zoom out to the telephoto setting to increase magnification. Beware though depth of field is reduced further.

If the camera has a filter thread attach a close up lens that screws into the front. These are available in +1, +2. +3 +4 and +10. Most cameras can be adapted with stepping rings or push on systems to allow a close up lens to be attached.

You can mount a digital camera on the top of a magnifying loupe that you'd normally use to check transparency sharpness and use this to greatly improve the close focusing capabilities.

Take a small white or silver reflector to throw light back towards the subject and fill in the shadows caused by overhead illumination.

Increase the ISO speed of your digital camera manually to allow a faster shutter speed or smaller aperture. The results will have more noise (grain-like appearance) but they will be sharper with more depth of field.

Example one. Bright colors and blur background.

Example 2 Soft colors and blur background.

Example 3 Minimum colors and blur background.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Camera settings that I prefer

Few basic camera settings that will help you to take great pictures. These are the ones that I prefer as I got good results. You can use your own settings as per your wish.

Quality
I use the basic large file quality. I prefer smaller files. Using the fine quality just blows up your file size and the fineness in the picture is not even considerable. Even the large JPEG basic quality gives you good results.

Exposure compensation
I set the exposure compensation to -0.7; most of the digital SLR’s in market have a defective metering. When exposure is set to -0.7 it gives you good results as compared to the default exposure.

Shutter advance mode
I set my camera to the continuous mode. I get one shot with one press. In case I need to take more shots to compare then I can keep the button pressed and take multiple pictures keep the good ones and delete the not so good ones. D40 can take up to 2.5 snaps per sec.

ISO
I prefer using the ISO auto more and ISO 200. The camera lighting meter checks the overall lighting and sets the ISO on it’s on. For out door photography I usually set it to 200 and it gives me better results than ISO auto. Nikon D40 supports ISO 200 – ISO 1,600.

White balance
I set my camera to auto white balance. I let the camera decide it. The auto mode works great most of the times with Nikon D40. I have tried all the modes at same location with same lighting conditions and diffident modes at different locations with different lighting conditions. Results of auto mode are much better than other modes. So finally I decided to leave it to auto mode.

Optimize the image
This option is available in the menu. I set it to use the vivid color. It gives good results.

Image Sharpness
Image sharpening is set to auto. I prefer auto because you have to keep changing the sharpness for different situations. Any way the results on the auto more are good so I do not bother to fiddle with the sharpness setting. For those you are lazy this is good camera as it does most of the things by its own. Acts like a normal aim and shoot camera but gives results as they are expected from a SLR.

Tone compensation
The Nikon D40 automatically adjusts the contrast and dynamic range to each shot. Again I do not disturb this as it works well in auto mode.

Color mode
This setting is one of the most important one. It gives colors to your pictures. If you want good outdoor and indoor pictures with D40 select the IIIa mode. It gives brighter pictures. Don’t even try to use any other modes unless you have all the time in the world to experiment with the other modes.

Saturation
I prefer (+) saturation. That gives much better and brighter pictures. That’s the default mode on D40.

Hue
I leave this one to default. I do not change it as it messed up the exposure and contrast of the picture for some reason. At the end you don’t get good pictures so leave it to default i.e. 0.

Focus mode
I always use the AF mode; the camera will focus on the object on its own and give good pictures.

Modes
Most of the digital SLR’s have many automatic settings like landscape, play, action, portrait and night etc I just ignore all these modes and the auto one of course.

I prefer one of the 4 manual modes P, S, A 7 M.

P mode – This is program automatic exposure mode. Here the camera decides the exposure time and the aperture settings. This is the simple one and saves lot of efforts of yours. We can even set it to manual if you want to do some experiments. The ideal combinations are displayed on the screen as decided by the exposure metering.

A mode – This is aperture priority mode. This lets you select the aperture values manually and the D40 will decide suitable shutter speed for you.

S mode – This is shutter priority mode. Here you can set the shutter speed manually and the D40 will decide the suitable aperture value for you.

M mode – This is the manual exposure mode. Here you can set the aperture and the shutter speed manually. The only thins is you have to try lot of combinations to take good pictures unless you are pro with the manual mode.

I hope this will give you a basic idea of how to use a digital SLR. The settings are good for any SLR from the same range. It can be Cannon or Nikon; this will work well with 95% of the cameras. Let me know if this article is useful for you.

Few of my creations

I would like to display few of my clicks. They are not as good as the the one's that are clicked by professionals but something that can be considered as fine for a beginner :).

These are the same ones that you may find on my Orkut or Facebook profile.

If you see any of the snaps you can see a great color composition. Trust me these are the actual raw files not processed or enhanced.

Great shot, I give this credit to nature for providing wonderful lighting and camera for capturing it.

This one is a mixture of green, white, blue and black colors. this one was clicked from shade. That's why you can see shade and sunny field are clearly visible here.

All the the pictures are of the same landscape from different angle with different settings that gives such a diverse effect.

My new Nikon D40

I am just a beginner in case of serious photography, I had a plan of executing this hidden hobby of mine so finally decided to buy Nikon D40 after doing lot of research on DSLR's. I found Nikon D40 a versatile DSLR at a reasonable price for beginners like me.

I would like to share few of the points that I considered before buying my Nikon D40. Trust me I have used it for more than a month now and D40 has given me fantastic results. It is the best camera to take outdoor pictures especially if you get it at a price of Rs. 24k in India.
The price drops to just under $500, with the excellent 18-55mm lens.

Nikon D40 is too much fun it trendy and cool. Nikon D40 is almost weightless with its 18-55 mm Lens and SB-400 built in flash, I grab it for Rs 24 k a couple of months back. I can just click good photographs easily with it. It works great with there lenses like my Nikon 50-200 mm.As of yesterday, I've made over 1,000 shots on my D40 and it still runs and works like new. I get about 750 shots on each battery charge, and even after swinging around my neck unprotects these past years, the plastic LCD cover is still perfectly clear.

Why should I move my head to look two places when I can have it all right in front of me on my D40? Nikon D40 has about double the battery life of any other Cannon DSLR's in same range, so I never need to buy or carry a spare battery, even to make 500 shots in a day or more. I got my D40 for fun, and since have fallen in love with how fast and easy it is to use. The great images just keep pouring out of it. Its so light weight I carry it everywhere I want with any extra battery or the charger. Nikon D40 is a fun, light, cool camera which is very sturdy and has great battery backup.

I am not trying to do marketing or anything for this product but I am really impressed with it, that all I wanted to share. Infact Nikon has discontinued this product as it affected the higher versions of the Nikon :).

As we move on I will add few snaps that I took with my D40. Trust me all the pictures are originals, unprocessed. It captures great pictures and no processing is required.

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